


swans and fire whiskey

by lilaliacs



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Flashbacks, M/M, Oblivious Pining, Quidditch, hufflepuff!jeno, just a fun lil thing, slytherin!jaem, the puff stream inspired me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-09 09:55:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18635803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilaliacs/pseuds/lilaliacs
Summary: Hina was still talking about the upcoming game, but Jaemin kept his gaze trained on the back of Jeno’s head in front of him.Sometimes, in classes they shared, he found himself doing just that, wondering what it looked like in there. In all the years he’d known him, he hadn’t been granted even the tiniest glimpse into Jeno’s throughts. Sometimes he wondered why this was so important to him.





	swans and fire whiskey

**Author's Note:**

> this sorting is the correct one btw, you don't need to change my mind
> 
> i took a fic for another fandom and rewrote it for nomin and i changed so much that its pretty much a different fic but yeah just in case, felt like i should mention that
> 
> enjoy!!!!!

Jaemin hated divination on a good day. But in the week right before a quidditch match, he felt like he was at the most miserable point of his life as he was sitting in the dusty sweet fog of Professor Son’s classroom.

He was not the only one in the room who obviously would rather be anywhere than there, he realized as he let his gaze wander. A good portion of the class was asleep, snoring behind a stack of books, one of Son’s pillows or simply leaned back into their chairs, mouths wide open and without a care about being caught. Some others were staring out of the wide windows, no doubt imagining a beautiful future where they could enjoy the sunlight and light breeze without having to worry about whether their tea leaves resembled a flower or a boar after all.

Still, neither the students nor the Professor herself got the chance to ever outright address the perpetual state of boredom that was ever present in the divination classroom, since Hina managed to make the lessons somewhat busy by asking just the right questions. Jaemin enjoyed classes they shared with Hufflepuff, Hina made some interesting points, usually.

But he hated Divination and he hated nothing more in this moment than having a clear view of the quidditch field while Hina happily babbled away about the exact position of Pluto next Saturday, the day she would be the one in charge of hurdling bludgers at his head. If the lesson hadn’t ended right there and then he probably would have leapt through the glass and in the general direction of the goals.

As it was, he was released of his misery by Professor Son closing her book and telling them to “rest their auras” over the weekend. Jaemin didn’t do things like auras and he definitely didn’t do resting because some shimmery hermit told him to, he’d do it on his very own accord, thank you very much. He couldn’t remember why he picked this subject. It probably just had been the first one on the list after the one’s he picked because he found them interesting. Donghyuck had probably talked him into it, but Donghyuck spent every single lesson fast asleep, drooling over Jaemin’s robes and leaving him all alone to suffer. Today, he didn’t even show up, telling Jaemin to fuck off when he tried to drag him out of bed and insisting he needed all the sleep he could get before the game on Saturday. The glare he’d thrown Jaemin when he’d pointed out that commentating the game was definitely not as much work as actually being on the pitch, had been scathing. 

Sighing, Jaemin slung his bag over his shoulder and made his way down towards the dining hall. Donghyuck would probably be waiting for him there, and he could tell him all the riveting things he’d missed during Divination.

Somewhere along the way he got so lost in his disappointment in Divination and his best friend, that he didn’t realize two people falling in step with him, until they were nearly all the way to the bottom of the stairs.

“So, Jaemin” , Hina suddenly spoke up, making him start. When he looked up he found not only Hufflepuff’s beater but also their chaser , seemingly striking a conversation with him. 6 years of being their classmate told Jaemin that Jeno preferred the part of conversation that involved silent staring or complete ignorance, at least when it came to Jaemin it seemed, so he knew to direct his words at Hina.

“Can I help you?” He knew he sounded anything but friendly. The last bludger Jaemin had gotten to his shoulder in a game against them also hadn’t been friendly, and no conversation he had attempted to start with Jeno in their years of shared classes had been either. 

~

_”Go on now, and make lots of new friends,” Jaemin’s mother said as she pushed her son towards the waiting train. “I know your first ever ride to Hogwarts is scary but‒”_

_“Mom, I’ll be fine,” Jaemin groaned._

_There was little things worse than your mother fussing about you in a public place, when you were eleven. He caught the eyes of a boy about his age, just when his mother started her laments up again, and sees them shining with mirth, no doubt as his expense. The boy didn’t seem to have any relatives embarrassing him to worry about. Jaemin thought he heard him laugh before his curly head disappeared through a door into the train._

_While Jaemin assured his mother, again, that he’d be fine, he had half a mind to think that he’d never see that boy again anyways, and the other probably wouldn’t even remember the encounter on platform 9 ¾ , and Jaemin really shouldn’t worry about it, he had other things to worry about that were far more important than some random kid that laughed at him and‒_

_“Your Ma is really worried about you, huh?” The same eyes, filled with the same mirth, blinked up at him as soon as he stepped foot in the carriage. Jaemin suppressed a glare and made to push past the boy with a vague mumble of “What’s it to you?”. The boy seemed to have other plans, as he turned and followed Jaemin deeper into the carriage._

_“It’s sweet!” He said, his voice bright with honesty rather than mockery. “Mine just yelled after me not to make any trouble before I had to get the bus to Kings Cross, not even a ‘Have fun’ or an ‘I’ll miss you’. But that’s alright, I guess, that’s how she always is. I’m Donghyuck, by the way!”_

_Jaemin had stopped walking when the rambling started and was now just staring at the boy. “I’m Jaemin,” he replied slowly, not quite sure what else to do, but Donghyuck didn’t seem to mind._

_“Great!” he chirped. “Let’s look for seats then! Also, I need to buy chocolate frogs as soon as possible, there’s that one card I just can’t seem to get a hold of, and I really need to complete my collection. I’m so excited for the sorting by the way, that’s going to be fun. What house do you think you’ll be in? Wait, no, what house do you _want_ to be in? I don’t actually know, that’s what makes it even more exciting. Oh, look, here looks pretty empty!” He’d pulled Jaemin along the carriage, to a compartment that was in fact mostly empty. One boy was sitting there, a cat curled up on the seat beside him. _

_“Hello!” Donghyuck chirped as he pushed the door open. “You look like you need some company. Are you a first year? Can I pet your cat? I’m Donghyuck, this is Jaemin, what’s your name?”_

_Without waiting for any kind of reply, Donghyuck sat down in the free seat next to the cat and reached out to pet her, earning him a hiss. He didn’t seem to care, trying again, and paying the other two boys in the compartment no further mind. Jaemin was paying some mind though, and he didn’t miss the way the boy hadn’t answered any of Dongyhuck’s questions, instead just staring. The look in his eyes was quite guarded, perhaps mistrustful, perhaps a little surprised, maybe even appalled. They were very pretty eyes. Jaemin tried for a smile. “Hello,” He said, quieter than Donghyuck had, and sank onto a seat on the other side of the compartment._

_The boy stared at him some more, and Jaemin was just about to ask him if he was alright, when the other abruptly turned to Donghyuck. “I’m Jeno,” He replied. “Be careful, she bites a lot.”_

_Jaemin, left ignored, didn’t think much about it at first. “People are going to be your friend when you are going to be theirs,” his mother had always told him. He wanted to be Jeno’s friend, but it would take him a while to realize that for some reason, Jeno didn’t want to be his._

~

Hina didn’t seem to care about friendliness and any bludgers she’d hurled at him before, when she took his response up as an invitation to keep talking to him.  
“Are you ready for the game? It’s been way too long since our last match don’t you think?”

Her tone suggested genuine interest but the glint in her eye said she remembered the last game and Jaemin’s trip to the hospital wing afterwards just as well as he did. Jaemin distinctly remembered a rant Donghyuck had gone on some weeks ago, when Siyeon had managed to sneak some bottles of butterbeer into the Slytherin dorms. “Hufflepuffs,” He had slurred. “Hufflepuffs are the scariest of all of us, because no one ever _suspects_ them to be.” It had gone on for several hours after that, and Jaemin remembered nothing more of it, but he was pretty sure there were venn diagrams involved, and he was pretty sure that, looking at Hina grin at him, he agreed.

The main reason for Jaemin’s apprehension with Hina chose to speak up in that moment. Nobody who was friends with Jeno Lee deserved Jaemin’s trust.

“This is what you dragged me over here for?” he asked Hina. He was ignoring Jaemin’s existence entirely. No surprise there. He did look over to him for the tiniest part of a second, when Jaemin scoffed, but just as quickly his eyes were fixed back on his friend like his life depended on it. 

“Yeah!” Is all she gave back, still with a wide grin. Jeno didn’t dignify that with an answer, instead choosing to release a huff and then speed up his pace.

“Excuse him”, Hina smiled as they resumed making their way towards the Great Hall, now a few strides behind Jeno. “He’s excited too you know? Don’t tell him I told you that though.”

The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes made it seem like she just told a friend a secret about another friend. Jaemin didn’t care to be their friend or hear their secrets, not anymore at least. 

~

_It seemed that during every summer, the memory that Jeno Lee just didn’t want anything to do with him, escaped Jaemin. After several tries to be friendly with Jeno in their first year, after Donghyuck had pretty much conquered his train compartment and after they were sorted, settled in, and ready to take on their classes had tragicall failed, and after any further tries to do the same in their second year had as well, Jaemin should have learned. But here he was, in his first Transfiguration class of his third year, walking straight towards the free seat by Jeno’s side with an unthreatening grin. And there he was, left to stare after Jeno as he gathered his quill and books into his arms und hurried to the back of the classroom to sit down next to Hyunjin Hwang as if he was on the run. Jaemin thought he’d seen actual panic in Jeno’s eyes._

_They both got a spot on their respective quidditch teams that year, and at the first Hufflepuff-Slytherin match, Jeno walked straight off the pitch and past Jaemin when it was their turn to shake hands in the name of sportsmanship._

_When Jaemin tried to tell Jeno that his earmuffs weren’t on right in Herbology, when they did mandrakes, Jeno pretended to not hear him calling out his name, stubbornly staring to the front of the greenhouse until they were given the okay to pull out the mandrakes. As the first of them started crying loudly, Jeno toppled sideways, nearly taking Chaewon Park with him. Jaemin watched as Professor Moon and Felix Lee heaved Jeno outside and realised, for the third year in a row, that sometimes, people just didn’t want to be his friend._

~

Hina was still talking about the upcoming game, but Jaemin kept his gaze trained on the back of Jeno’s head in front of him.

Sometimes, in classes they shared, he found himself doing just that, wondering what it looked like in there. In all the years he’d known him, he hadn’t been granted even the tiniest glimpse into Jeno’s throughts. Sometimes he wondered why this was so important to him. Jeno wasn’t the only one in their year who he wasn’t friends with. In fact, Jaemin’s social circle was mostly Donghyuck’s fault. Yet it only ever bothered him when it concerned Jeno.

“Actually,” Hina said, breaking through Jaemin’s thoughts right as they stepped into the Great Hall, “I think Jeno’s the most excited when playing your team. I can’t hold it against him, you’re all terrifying on the court. It’s fun!”

Jaemin didn’t think Siyeon had scored against Yoorim in their quidditch career extraordinarily much, but he had to agree his team’s chasers seemed to challenge their opponents usually. And he personally had seen Hina and Yeri strike up a reoccurring rivalry whenever they chased each other for bludgers. He never thought that Jeno would be excited to play the Slytherin team though. Jaemin was on there, after all, and Jeno had never gotten visibly excited for anything including Jaemin, quite the opposite, actually. Not that he was bitter. Not that he even cared. He couldn’t tell Hina any of that of course, so he resigned to an indifferent hum.

Luckily for him the conversation was forced to a stop as they walked further into the Great Hall and had to part ways in order to get to their respective house tables on other ends of the room. Jaemin had never been more thankful about this layout.

Saturday came and so did an early wake. If Donghyuck and Siyeon hadn’t forced him to wolf down breakfast he would’ve fallen asleep over his plate in an instant. With Siyeon and Chenle going over some plays again and Yeri joining them soon after, there was a quiet buzz creeping up inside him though.

As usual, the quidditch teams playing that morning were the first ones in the Great Hall, so halfway through dinner Jaemin had a clear view of Jeno and Hina settling down on the far wall. Jeno was animatedly talking about something with Felix, ignoring his breakfast in favour of waving his hands around urgently. It wasn’t an uncommon sight, Jaemin knew that Jeno was quite talkative, where it didn’t concern Jaemin. Even Donghyuck had come out of a class he shared with Jeno once, having just completed some kind of group project, and told Jaemin about how ‘Jeno Lee is an absolute riot, he just told me the funniest thing.’ Jaemin sighs quietly and tunes out Chenle and Yeri next to him. 

~

_In their fourth year, Jeno had talked to Jaemin. Looking back at it, it was quite pathetic how he remembered the day in detail, thought back on it often._

_It had been only a little while before Christmas, the weekend, and Jaemin had promised Donghyuck to help him pick out presents in Hogsmeade. They both had nearly everything on their list, agreeing to buy each other’s presents on their own and meet up again at the town’s center to walk back to the castle. It hadn’t taken Jaemin long to find something Donghyuck would like at Zonko’s, so he was just aimlessly wandering around, enjoying the sun reflecting off the snow on the ground._

_When he passed the Three Broomsticks, a lot of things happened at once. Jaemin focussed on the way the cobblestone pattern was visible through the footprints in the snow, not noticing the door opening right in front of him. But open it did, and out came a gust of warmth, pieces of conversation, as well as a slightly swaying teenager, way too fast for how unprepared Jaemin, and how slippery the ground was. With a strangled noise of surprise, the boy barrelled right into Jaemin, taking them both down. The snow cushioned their fall, the door closed, and then it was entirely silent. If it weren’t for the whole body weighing down on his chest, Jaemin would have thought he’d imagined the whole thing._

_He wheezed out a breath and blinked up against the bright sunlight. Jeno Lee was blinking back down at him, his cheeks flushed slightly red, a few snowflakes caught in his hair and his lashes. Jaemin felt like he was being barrelled to the ground all over again for a strange second, as the sunlight caught in Jeno’s eyes._

_He expected the familiar flash of panic or disdain that he always got from Jeno, but he didn’t get it. He expected the other to get up without a word and hurry off down the street, but it didn’t happen. He expected the weird feeling in his stomach as Jeno blinked down at him to go away, but it stayed._

_“I’m a little drunk,” Jeno said._

_“That makes sense,” Jaemin gave back. It shouldn’t take long for Jeno to realise that he didn’t actually want to talk to him. Might as well make the best if it. “I’m a little freezing,” He added. When Jeno just kept blinking at him, he continued: “Because I’m laying in a pile of snow, and everything.”_

_Jeno’s eyes widened nearly comically and he scrambled to get up. This would probably be the moment he’d leave, Jaemin thought. The disappointment with which he thought it surprised him less each time. What surprised him even more was the hand held out in front of him. “Get up,” Jeno beckoned. “You’ll catch a cold.”_

_Despite himself, Jaemin grabbed Jeno’s hand and let himself be pulled up. Despite himself, he realised how easy it seemed for Jeno to do that. Not at all despite himself he mumbled: “What’s it to you?”_

_Jeno heard it, and his eyes widened even more. “Do you think I want you to catch a cold?” He asked, sounding shocked._

_“Well, no,” Jaemin gave back. “But I didn’t think you’d be concerned if I did.”_

_He was standing now, and had already pulled his hand back from Jeno’s hold, but Jeno grabbed it back right then, squeezing it a little tighter than necessary. “I would,” he said, very seriously. “I would be very concerned.”_

_The weird feeling in Jaemin’s stomach was still there, and there was still snowflakes in Jeno’s hair. “Uh,” He stammered. “Uh, okay. Thank you.”_

_Jeno nodded seriously. He was still holding onto Jaemin’s hand. Jaemin wondered what the whole exchange probably looked like to the people walking by._

_He also wondered why this was happening, but he didn’t actually think he could ever come up with a sensible explanation. In a few minutes at most, this would all sound like a fever dream to him, a hallucination at most. Maybe Donghyuck put something into his pumpkin juice this morning._

_Jeno gasped suddenly and let go of Jaemin’s hand. That was it then, the end of the fever dream, where Jeno would run off and leave Jaemin behind in confusion, still with that cursed feeling in his stomach. He was _convinced_ Donghyuck had put something into his juice. _

_“Here,” Jeno said, instead of running off. He held out the scarf he had just wrangled from his own neck, right in front of Jaemin’s face._

_“I…” Jaemin looked from the black and yellow piece of fabric to the snowflakes in Jeno’s hair. “I’m wearing a scarf,” He said, dumbly._

_Jeno made a little noise, something a little exasperated, and stepped even closer than he was. Before Jaemin could step back, Jeno had pulled his scarf over the back of his neck and tied it into a complicated looking knot right under Jaemin’s chin. He didn’t seem to realise that he was pulling Jaemin even closer as he was doing it, not even when he looked up from his work and the tips of their noses were just an inch shy of touching._

_“There you go,” He said. “You won’t catch a cold now.” Then he smiled, and from this close, it made Jaemin feel warmer than even a hundred more scarves could have._

_“Thanks,” He breathed out. And because he had no impulse control to begin with, and this still felt very much like a fever dream, he reached up and brushed the snowflakes out of Jeno’s hair._

_He expected the dream around him to fall apart, expected to wake up, but the only thing that fell apart was his own sanity as Jeno’s smile widened, his eyes disappearing into crescents. “Thanks,” Jeno echoed back. Then he said: “You look pretty in yellow.” Then: “I’m supposed to be going back to the castle, Hina said I should.” And then he was gone._

_Jaemin stuffed the yellow and black piece of fabric into the pockets of his robes before he met with Donghyuck and his friend could ask any questions Jaemin didn’t have the answer to. He chalked the whole thing up to hitting his head on the cobblestone actually, right up until he got back to his dorm and pulled the scarf out again._

~

He still had the scarf now, two years later. He couldn’t quite say why he had held onto it for this long, not as long as he didn’t let himself acknowledge the very obvious swooping of his heart whenever he saw it between his other things, and when he remembered the whole encounter. It was the only real conversation he ever had with Jeno, and one of the weirdest conversations he’d ever had in general. 

But right now, as Yeri urged them all to get a headstart to the quidditch field, he pushed it to the back of his mind. He didn’t quite succeed for a moment, when he was nearly out of the Great Hall and caught Jeno’s eyes over the heads of some other Hufflepuffs. There was something in there that reminded Jaemin of that snowy day in fourth year, something that brought that feeling back to his stomach. He couldn’t say why it would be, couldn’t discern any reason, other than a vivid hallucination after having remembered the whole encounter. He shook his head slightly, but it was still there when he got to the dressing rooms, when Yeri went over tactics one last time, when he pushed off the ground on his broom. He caught Jeno’s eyes again right before the game started, and it was still there. 

He kept thinking about it, throughout the duration of the game. He thought about it so much at points that Donghyuck had to interrupt his comments to yell at him so he would snap out of it and do his job. The feeling only faded after he felt the metal of the snitch against his hand. He couldn’t quite remember when he made the active decision to grab it.  
It had been a rough game, he knew even when he spent most of it on his thoughts, and he had stopped counting the times he had had to dodge bludgers coming his way at the 30 minute mark. Hina’s smile as everyone landed back on the ground didn’t fool him for one second.

They went down the line of Hufflepuffs, shaking their hands. This time, Jeno didn’t run off like he did in third year, but he didn’t squeeze his hand tightly like he did in fifth year either and he didn’t catch Jaemin’s eye like he did this morning. He seemed to look right through him instead. Jaemin could see something work in his brain, but couldn’t tell what. 

About an hour ago, one of Hina’s bludgers had barely missed him, the maneuver around it throwing Jaemin off balance for a moment too long. He hadn’t taken care of his surroundings, had forgotten the Hufflepuff technique of a double bludger and hadn’t anticipated the other beater to go after him again. It would’ve hit him square in the chest, had a voice right to his left not called out to him, piercing to Jaemin but not loud enough for the other Hufflepuffs to hear. 

It was the third time Jaemin caught Jeno’s eyes that day, and this time he could read the look in them. It was worry, and a little something more. 

_”I would be very concerned.”_ Jeno had said back then, in front of the Three Broomsticks.

He was looking through Jaemin. After the game they would go back to apathetically ignoring each other. Jaemin had given up trying to be Jeno’s friends in the Spring of their fourth year. Every time he reminded himself of that decision, his heart felt a little heavier. 

~

_The summer before fifth year, Jaemin’s mother walked into his room without warning. That was no surprise, she didn’t believe in things like knocking and privacy, and it was alright because Jaemin rarely had anything to hide. Right at that moment, he had been laying on his bed, head upside down, a black and yellow scarf dangling right in front of his eyes. He didn’t know how long he’d spent like that._

_“Oh, I haven’t seen one of those in years, I thought I’d thrown all of mine out,” His mother wondered._

_“You did,” Jaemin mumbled back without thinking. “Someone gave this to me.”_

_He regretted it a second later, when his mother gasped and sat down next to him on the bed. “You know,” she said, conspiratorially. “Back in my day, when someone was dating someone from a different house‒”_

_“No,” Jaemin cut her off, sitting upright. “Definitely not.”_

_“I’m just saying!” She laughed, holding up her hands. “And a Hufflepuff nonetheless, I couldn’t be more proud!”_

_It took another excruciating ten minutes for her to finally leave him alone, and his face still felt hot when he took out his quill and told Donghyuck about the whole thing. Of course that meant he had to tell Donghyuck about the _whole_ thing, including how he actually got into possession of the scarf. _

_When his mother’s old owl came back with the reply the next day, it was two pages. The first was empty except for: _You know what? She has a point._ The second was filled in tight print, detailing exactly four of Donghyuck’s theories as to why Jaemin’s mother had a point. _

_Jaemin’s letter back had been scathing, life threatening in parts, but Donghyuck had teased him about the whole situation well into their fifth year. He’d gotten bored of it by Halloween, but some of it had stayed with Jaemin, always in the back of his mind as he caught sight of Jeno’s head in class, and wondered what exactly was going on in there.  
That year, they covered Amortentia in Potions. While Donghyuck had loudly proclaimed to be smelling peppermint and fresh ink, it had taken Jaemin a few days to place what the smell had been for him. He only realised while sorting through his trunk in search of a spare quill and the yellow striped scarf had fallen out along with a few shirts. It didn’t smell like anything in particular anymore, but Jaemin distinctly remembered lavender and some kind of muggle detergent in the air, while Jeno had been focused on tying the scarf underneath Jaemin’s chin. The realisation had made him laugh. It had stayed in the back of his mind as well, quiet but persistent._

~

It became loud now, as Jeno stared through Jaemin, so loud that the thought of going back to whatever they usually did seemed unbearable. 

Jaemin wouldn’t accept it.

Jeno hurried off the court as soon as he could, and Jaemin caught up with him just outside of the walls separating the court from the changing rooms.

“Your scarf,” He said. It came out a little louder than intended, a little breathless.

Jeno turned around and looked at him, surprise evident on his face. Any other day, Jaemin would tell himself that Jeno didn’t remember the whole encounter. But today he wouldn’t settle for that. Something had been in Jeno’s eyes that morning. A breeze rustled their quidditch robes and Jaemin thought it smelled like lavender and detergent. 

“I never gave it back to you.”

Jeno looked at him for a long moment, and then he laughed. It was a short, wonderful sound, stopping just as quickly as it came. Jaemin wanted to pluck it from the air and keep it on one of those enchanted mason jars his mother kept dreams in. 

“You didn’t,” Jeno agreed. “I never asked you to give it back.”

He didn’t say he forgot. He didn’t say anything else, and neither did Jaemin for a long moment. 

Jeno wasn’t looking at him when he spoke up again, but at the goal posts behind them. “Do you want to know what Hina saw in my tea leaves last week in Divination?”

Jaemin narrowed his eyes. “Your tea leaves?” 

“Yeah, she’s really good at that,” Jeno nodded. Jaemin realised with startling clarity and very late that they were having an actual conversation. About tea leaves. 

“What was it?” He asked. 

“A swan,” Jeno looked at him finally, his smile wide, his eyes crescents. 

Jaemin hated Divination, and he hated it even more at that very moment, because he had never paid attention once after Professor Son predicted his certain death within seven minutes of his first lesson with her. He had no idea what a swan in someone’s tea leaves meant, but he didn’t want to admit that to Jeno. “Oh,” He said. “Cool.” 

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” Jeno nodded. “And it’s actually kind of funny.”

“It is?” 

Jeno nodded again. Some of their teammates walked past them, throwing them curious looks or ignoring them entirely. Jaemin could hear Donghyuck tell people to leave the stands in an orderly manner, because Professor Seo had said so. Jeno didn’t seem to be keen on ending this conversation any time soon, and Jaemin hadn’t planned that far. 

“She saw a swan in my tea leaves once before, in fifth year,” Jeno explained, casually. “It was the weekend before Christmas and we were at the Three Broomsticks with some upperclassmen, and Kim Jiwoo told us that putting fire whiskey into our tea would be really fun, and Hina saw a swan in my leaves.” 

Recognition bloomed in Jaemin’s chest, but he hadn’t planned that far. “So, what happened next?” He asked. 

Jeno smiled. “You didn’t give my scarf back. I would have asked you why, but…” He trailed off. 

“I get it!” Jaemin intercepted. “We don’t really talk.” 

But Jeno shook his head. “Without fire whiskey and tea-swans you just make me too nervous,” He corrected, conversationally. 

Jaemin didn’t think he could have come up with a plan for this conversation. It was reminiscent of his fingers closing around the snitch just a few minutes earlier when he said: “Well, we’re talking now. I’ll see you tomorrow at the Three Broomsticks to give your scarf back. Maybe there will be more swans.”

He caught a glance of Jeno’s smile brightening as he hurried past him into the changing rooms and decided to crack open his Divination text book on the tea-reading chapter for the first time since first year later.

**Author's Note:**

> dw you dont need to google it: a swan in your tea leaves means luck with love 
> 
> for questions and concerns: my twt is lilaliacs and my cc is fullstar


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